US expert calls for counselling

There is not enough attention given to the rehabilitation of drug abusing athletes, according to Dr Wade Exum, director of the US Olympic Committee Drug Programme. Speaking at the well-attended Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) convention on Sport Against Drugs held yesterday in Dublin, Dr Exum put a new spin on the current trend of demonising athletes caught using banned substances.

Tellingly, Exum addressed mostly administrators and coaches with one of the few international athletes present pointing to the lack of currently active athletes in attendence.

Given recent cases where banned products have been mistakenly ingested by Irish athletes and the fact that anabolic steroid users can suffer side-effects like shrunken testicles and low sperm counts, it did seem like a missed opportunity for those involved in sport to gain first hand knowledge.

While Dr Exum argued that athletes should be counselled like addicts, the organiser of the event Dr Joseph Cummiskey declared the conference to be about "athletes, drugs and bodily fluids." Inevitably, however, the legal aspects of drug taking and testing procedures, quickly rocketed to centre stage.

Giles Kennedy, a solicitor for the OCI rattled the nerves of many a sports volunteer when he suggested that National Governing Bodies (NGBs) may open themselves up to claims for damages when the Irish Sports Council is established on a statutory basis next January.

"The proposal for an Anti-Doping Policy in Ireland envisages a situation where the Irish Sports Council will rely on the NGBs to voluntarily administer the Anti-Doping programme, in particular the disiplinary aspects and the sanctions and I say here lies the risk," said Kennedy.

"The Minister is asking the NGBs to take on the risk of administering the programme from a judicial point of view. . . The NGBs should insure against their risk and. . . include the cost in any application for Grant Aid." In other words the NGBs should ask for more money to pay for their increased insurance bills.

Kennedy also generated robust debate when he said that all testers should be medically qualified. As it stands testers are trained to carry out the relatively simple procedure of collecting urine samples and are not medically trained. It was an issue which Professor Cowan of the London IOC laboratory dismissed, arguing that proficiently trained tecnicians can properly carry out such functions.

In all there were six lectures in what OCI president Pat Hickey described as: "probably the most important conference ever put together by the OCI over its 77 year history."

Dr Exum spoke about the USOC's Drug control programme with Kennedy giving his views on the legal aspects. Professor Cowan spoke on the work of his London laboratory, one of the most respected in the world, before Niamh Bonnar, of the Blackrock Clinic discussed Over-The-Counter-Drugs.

American tester Steve Carson, who sometimes has to co-ordinate 168 tests over a weekend, described life as a urine collector while Dr Exum finished with a talk on the types of athletes who abuse drugs.

"Drugs actually do work," he candidly announced. "Athletes who take them feel good, look good and perform better. Their attitude is `more or bigger is better'. Some will take drugs to the point that they get kicked out of their sport or die."

Well, that's why we were there.